Gray
by Zeiskyte
Summary: With the Machine Herald at the hands of defeat and on the verge of a mental breakdown, the man who threatens his ideals and all that he strives for might be the only thing able to save him. But when the Defender of Tomorrow sees the man behind the mask, all will soon change... (One-shot done for NaNoWriMo 2015, cover isn't mine!)


"To the skies!"

Viktor had less than a split second to dodge his nemesis' attack, so while escaping the blow, part of his cape was caught under the Mercury Hammer. Out of reflex, The Machine Herald threw down his Gravitational Field, slowing Jayce down and pulling him into the center. As a quick harass, Viktor threw his Siphon Power to activate his speed augment, as well as his hidden force field. With a quick roll, he willed his third, mechanical arm to shoot its signature Death Ray, disintegrating a large amount of the Defender's armor.

Jayce toppled to the hard rock below him, the Gravitational Field finally letting out and allowing him to dodge a portion of the Death Ray. He quickly transformed his weapon into the Mercury Cannon, and placed down an Acceleration Gate before releasing a potent Shock Blast aimed towards the Herald's upper torso.

The cyborg shifted his weight to the left, causing the concentrated energy to miss and fluctuate behind him. He centered his body once more before shooting a quick laser using his staff and taking a swig of one of his health potions.

Jayce, who had gotten back on his feet whilst the Herald's harass, narrowed his eyes with a low growl. "Don't think you're so amazing, Viktor. You got a good hit on me, so what?" He proceeded to switch to his Mercury Hammer once more, and swung at his archenemy with a Thundering Blow.

"Power Slam!"

Viktor was thrown back against a dense stone wall, thoroughly shaking his entire build and sending unwanted pain through his bones. His armor was damaged and scratched up from the Defender's Hammer, as well, and it took a full second or two for the augmented man to readjust his eyes and refocus on his surroundings. Glancing around with a nebulous mind, his entire body ached.

How could that primitive Piltovian damage him so much with one blow? The human was _weak_ , not a single augment present in his body... and he was foolish, as he denied Viktor's original offer to work with the man to achieve the Glorious Evolution. So how was that man winning the fight?

"Coward..." his voice came out as a pained murmur, quieter and evidently more timid than he expected. No... he sounded weak and frail, like a newborn infant, or a mere child being attacked. He felt like the other man was toying with him, like this match was out of pure entertainment for the Piltovian.

He felt helpless, and he hated that feeling. Emotions only burdened him, just like foolish kindness and naivety... worthless trust and the pain of betrayal...

Viktor's metal hand clunked against the rocky earth, clenching sediment and destroying it in a split second. His eyes were squeezed shut in frustration, and he felt as though Jayce was the least of his worries currently. Absentmindedly, it made him wonder how long he was writhing in pain and detesting himself.

With a quick glance to the right- one that still caused pain to lance through his head- he came to the grim realization that the strike from the Hammer and the collision with the wall had completely destroyed his extra metal appendage, and sparks flitted in the air like miniscule butterflies, liberated from torture.

The Herald shakily got to his feet, knowing his Death Ray was now unusable, and had to lean against the wall for support. He spun around suddenly, and punched the stone out of frustration, weakness, hatred...

He tilted his head against the wall, his mask the only thing between his face and the stone. His hair was spiked up akin to black lightning with a streak of gray.

Distantly, he imagined his hair as the perfect display of himself; a person only hoping to better the world, having their goals and ideals stolen from them, falling into a gray morality with twisted morals... falling into the black...

Viktor's vision was blurry, and he actually felt an emotion... he thought he banished this one especially... but the tears were enough to distinguish what he was experiencing.

Failure. Angst. Regret.

But the most prevalent of all: pure sadness.

He slowly placed his organic hand on his face, genuinely incredulous about the emotions plaguing him, but was met with the metal mask.

After standing alone haplessly for what felt like hours, Viktor heard the voice he always cringed at.

"Is that a surrender, Herald? You looked so defeated that I had to give you a break out of pity!" Jayce announced almost arrogantly, oblivious to the war between the cyborg and himself.

After a long five seconds, Viktor finally turned around from the wall, and the Defender could feel the harsh glare from behind the mask. The dysfunctional third metallic arm and dented armor did none to intimidate the Piltovian. When the augmented man spoke, that's when Jayce knew something had changed.

"W-why must you ru-...ruin all that I strive to accomplish? We are tr-trying to achieve the s-same goal, Defender..."

Although his thick accent coated the words, and the robotic voice modifier present in his mask manipulated his voice, it was still obvious to Jayce that Viktor's voice was breaking and he did not hold his usual arrogant air. It was strange to see the Herald like this, as a pitiful man and not an aspiring tyrant. The man was evil, right? After all, that was all Jayce had to focus on; he was the hero, and Viktor was the villain.

"Hear me out-t. T-that is all I ask of you-ou," his voice was a mere whisper at this point, easily drifted away by the wind. "Let us cease th-this c-conflict, _J-Jayce_ " -the man winced at the use of the Defender's name- "and work-ork towards the better-er tomorrow you s-seek..."

Viktor's hand dropped from his mask and extended as an offered handshake. The Piltovian's azure eyes rolled over one of the few remaining organic parts of the Herald, debating internally on accepting the offer. It could be a trap, the man could be acting weak to feign weakness and backstab Jayce after becoming close with him, but Jayce knew for a fact that Viktor wouldn't sink that low and lose all his dignity and pride when he could easily improve to beat the Defender fairly. He couldn't be lying, his voice sounded so _weak,_ not even the robotic effect modifying it could make him sound intimidating. His third arm was in ruins, his armor was destroyed, it seemed as though his mask was all that held him together, a facade of power and condescendence.

Viktor had been defeated internally and externally. Jayce had won over brains and brawn, and the Herald was at his wit's end. This wasn't a front nor a trap, the man could only be telling the truth at this point. Maybe Jayce had thought of the man in the wrong way, maybe they were similar in their interest of using science to better their future.

So, without further hesitation, Jayce accepted the handshake and helped Viktor to his feet.

The two men stood beside each other in silence, waiting for the other to make a move. Jayce shuffled his feet awkwardly, his gaze shifting between his boots and the destroyed figure of the man adjacent to him. For some reason, he only realized at that moment that him and the Herald were about the same height... he always assumed that he was taller, albeit younger. At least from what he could tell. He didn't even know how old Viktor was, and what his past was like. It made Jayce wonder if he misjudged the man the entire time they fought...

"T-thank you," the dark-haired man murmured suddenly, nigh inaudible to the Defender. In fact, the latter winced at the other inventor's gratitude.

"P-pardon?!" He nearly shouted, "was that a thank you? From the great Machine Herald?" Jayce was genuinely incredulous; he never thought he would hear the other man say anything like that. He always assumed that the Zaunite took everything for granted and was unable to be truly grateful.

"Yes, I j-just said thank you... I'm not heartless, I am still partially organic," the cyborg corrected after recomposing himself, "and I have a name, you should start using it."

Jayce was astounded by how the Herald's entire personality changed within such a short time period. Less than an hour prior, the man was spewing nonsense about his "Glorious Revolution," and pursuing his obsession blindly, doing anything to achieve it, even fighting Jayce to prove the superiority of machine. But now? The man seemed weak- helpless even- and hardly spoke two words.

Out of pure frustration and impatience, the Defender narrowed his eyes and nearly shouted, "Just who the hell even are you?!"

He quickly went to remove Viktor's mask, the only barrier keeping the two from seeing face to face. As if in slow motion, the Herald attempted to dodge the Defender's gauntlet-yielding hand, but only ended up getting punched in the side of his head.

Plummeting to the ground, Viktor's skull made contact with the rock once again, but it thoroughly knocked him out this time.

* * *

When he regained consciousness, his surroundings were blurry once more. He shook his head, and simultaneously used his actual hand to rub his forehead and temples to relieve the migraine he felt coming on.

Wait, his forehead?

Instantly, Viktor scoured the ground for his missing mask, but upon glancing up, he came face to face with Jayce.

"I can't believe it," the Piltovian's voice was filled with disbelief, and his tone was beyond incredulous, "it cant be..."

Viktor gritted his teeth, completely ignoring the pain it brought, and fell to his hands and knees. His mask, his facade... gone. Jayce knew. It was all over...

"My parents said I had a twin brother who went missing I was young... but it can't be... /you can't be..." Jayce was muttering senselessly to himself, his whole life was a lie, his entire goal to protect Piltover was crumbling around him, and his hated rival... the Machine Herald... _Viktor_...

"I was kidnapped, and after a small period of time, I hear they assumed I was dead and cut off the search," the Zaunite answered without looking at Jayce, knowing he was entitled to know what happened. "They took me to Zaun, where I was forced to undergo many experiments, but I'm only aware of them now because my captors were exposed and reported, letting me free to see how society viewed them. I lived on the streets for a good time of my youth after that, some of my friends now fight on the Fields of Justice with us today...

"When I was in college, my greatest invention, the steam golem Blitzcrank, was stolen from me, and I fell intro depression. I felt like my life was over, everything I had strived for was gone, and all of my work was for naught. The only thing I could turn to was techmaturgy, and I began to augment myself... that way, I wouldn't be burdened with petty human emotions, and nobody could plagiarize me.

"But when I try to better the world by relinquishing flesh and augmenting society using your crystal, you call me an evil villain who wishes to turn humanity into emotionless robots. Why? I was never evil, I wanted the achieve the same goal as you, so why did that make me the enemy? Especially the fact that we shared the exact same genes and family, how did our moralities deviate this far?"

At the end of his monologue, Viktor was met with silence and a speechless Jayce. Honestly, the Herald could understand why his brother was at a loss for words, as his entire life and perspective was wrong this entire time, but he still expected more of the Piltovian than to just stand there like a mindless idiot.

"... Are you actually going to answer me, or are you just going to stare into nothing for the next few hours?" Viktor inquired harshly, even though it was obvious that he was somewhat joking with that sarcastic tone of his.

Finally, Jayce answered, "I... what? I mean, you seem so much older, and your hair is darker and even is a bit gray... and your accent... how could we be twins? I mean-"

"I grew up fast," the Herald answered instantly, not wishing to hear Jayce ramble on about the same disbelieving nonsense forever, "and my captors had this accent, so I developed it while I was stuck with them. But as you can tell, we're identical... I thought you were smart enough to realize that faster, Defender."

"But why didn't you say anything? When you came to my lab about the crystal all that time ago, why wouldn't you mention this?"

Viktor scoffed, "Trust me, I was surprised to see your face for the first time, but my mask served its purpose. And when you became so dead set on making me your enemy, what was the point of bringing this up?"

"Whatever," Jayce finally said, and he tossed the Herald his mask, the metal heavy in his hands, "You'd better put this back on, I don't favor the idea of having to stare at my own face- although very alluring- and having to associate it with you..."

The Zaunite quickly caught the mask and attached it back to its mount around his head, choosing to ignore his brother's words for the most part. "I honestly can't argue with that, and I prefer to keep it on. Lately, seeing myself only serves to remind me of how much you incessantly pester me."

As the topic turned somewhat lighthearted, Jayce didn't even consider poking fun at and elbowing Viktor as an act of harassment, but as two brothers fighting jokingly. Viktor, however, scowled, and if his third arm was functioning, he would have shot Jayce with it without hesitation.

It was obvious that it was going to take some time to get adjusted to this turn of events...

* * *

 **A/N:**

 _Well, it has come to my attention that there is a lack of Viktor and Jayce fanfics, so as this is my first ever League fanfic, I thought it should be about them. In addition, this was thrown together last second to make it in time for NaNoWriMo, so I bet there is over nine-thousand typos and plot holes, so I'll probably revise and edit it at a later date, but here it is now._ _If you guys think you see mistakes, they're probably there, and I would appreciate it if you point it out... not necessary, but it will be appreciated._ _(Also, I'm just finding out about line breaks being missing... ffnet, y u do dis?) (edit: just found them lol)  
_

 _This fanfic was inspired from the many theories on Viktor and Jayce, as well as theories on the other Zaunite champs and their relations with Piltovian ones. This is specifically inspired by one on the lore forums about Viktor and Jayce being brothers, so the credit goes to the two RPers who posted it on there. (It really made me think, and I've just been so obsessed with it lately.) In addition, I threw a small allusion to the "Zaun orphans theory," regarding Jinx, Vi, and Ekko, and added Viktor in, as that's how I view his past. So, overall, a big thanks to those theorists that spun these amazing tales!_

 _This definitely didn't go the way I planned, it was supposed to be darker and end with Jayce removing Viktor's mask to see his own face, but it ended up ending on a much lighter tone, so hurray for happy endings? Well, thank you for reading this rubbish fanfic, I guess... It'll be edited and revised as soon as I'm not overwhelmed with stupid AP and honors work..._


End file.
